Virgin Australia to add B737MAX8

On 29 April, Virgin Australia has announced the airline has secured the leases of four B737-8s. The aircraft are added to the fleet to cope with the increased demand, which the airline expects to reach pre-pandemic level domestic capacity by the middle of this year. The MAX8s are scheduled for delivery in early 2023 and are on top of the order Virgin Australia has for 25 B737-10s. The first of these MAX10s are also scheduled for delivery in early 2023 but this timeline is uncertain due certification challenges of the largest variant of the MAX.

At the same time, according to CH-Aviation, the airline has also said it's planning to retire its ten Fokker 100s at subsidiary Virgin Australia Regional in the first quarter of next year. The Fokkers will be replaced by (leased) B737-700s, streamlining the airline's narrowbody-fleet towards Boeings. However, Virgin Australia doesn't have plans (yet) to replace its seven A320s operated by Virgin Australia Regional.

Illustration by Virgin Australia.